


Day 054

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [54]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:33:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22868683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [54]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 1





	Day 054

Huon entered the circle library doing his best to look nonchalant. It was not unusual or even unexpected for mages to be in the library, really, there wasn’t much else for them to do with their time, but he felt as though the templars could sense his purpose. 

He had been snuck out of the tower last night to meet with Alaren, one of the new apostates who had arrived in the city. The man had lots of ideas relating to the innate power held in the blood of the elvhen. According to Alaren elven blood was more powerful than that of other races and Qunari were more vulnerable to the effects of blood magic. Humans and dwarves fell somewhere in the middle, although no records of the Fex or Ghasts existed. Alaren had laughed when Huon had asked about Ghasts, saying that they were not a real race but beasts that mimicked civilization, an opinion Huon was surprised to hear from an elf in human lands. The Ghasts used tools and lived in colonies and some could even use magic. 

Huon wasn’t stupid enough to look up books on blood magic in plain view of the templars but he might find information on Ghasts for the next time he could meet up with Aleren. He suspected any information would be found in a bestiary as opposed to an anthropological text. Just in case, he collected all of Brother Genitive’s works in case the man had encountered Ghasts in his travels. As he settled in to begin his research he felt the presence of a templar behind him. 

“This is a new avenue of research for you, Mage,” he said. “What are you looking for?” 

Huon looked up at the templar. He was not one of Thrask’s men so he would have to be careful. You didn’t survive this long in the Kirkwall circle without becoming either a “good” mage our a good liar. 

“Well I have been struck with a sudden concern regarding the Ghasts. They live in mountains so there must be some in the areas around Kirkwall and, as we know some of them are capable of wielding magic, and might be vulnerable to possession. I was going to see if I could find records of any such creature.”

“Ghasts are beasts,” The templar said. 

“Exactly!” Huon said. “Animals and even plants can become possessed and they aren’t even a tempting host. If one with magic, like a ghast appeared they should swarm towards them. If they do become possessed it would be of concern to you and your order, and if they don’t, there might be a defence against posetion we could learn.” 

The templar said nothing further, he merely grunted and returned to his posse leaving Huon to research in peace. 

To his dismay, no one seemed to have written about Ghast possession, of if they did, it was the way they wrote about possession of common beasts. He expanded his search to include magical mysteries and monsters of legend. Here he found something that might be related. Scholarly opinions about a template report from the mid Steel Age about a small creature of tremendous power. The templar has killed the creature, albeit with some difficulty, but since the encounter happened during the Qunari invasion on Thedas, no effort was put into further investigation. The overall conclusion seemed to be that it was an abomination created from an elven child but as the original report was not in the Kirkwall library, he could not form his own opinions. 

There was nothing left to do except file a request for the report to be transferred from Cumberland. It was unlikely the request would be approved and even if it did it could be months before the document arrived. Huon wanted to do some roundabout research on an even connection to blood magic, maybe a historical record from when Kirkwall was post of the imperium, but it was almost curfew by that point and if Huon didn’t have all the books put away by then, they would be consequences. He was forced to put aside his research, at least for today.


End file.
